preppy-3
A young woman (Erica Gavin) is arrested for helping two men in a bank holdup. She's thrown into a prison run by a sadistic warden (Barbara Steele). There the guards treat the prisoners like dirt and the prison doctor regularly gives them lobotomies or electroshock therapy. With another prisoner (Juanita Browne) Gavin plans a break out...but is it possible? Jonathan Demme's directorial debut has been highly praised over the years. Critics loved it and it has a cult following. There's plenty of action, likable characters, moves fairly quick, has great acting by Gavin and Steele and a GREAT ending. Still it also has laughable dialogue, some REALLY bizarre dream sequences that add nothing to the story, bad acting and truly sick moments seeing how badly the women are being treated. So it is well-done and all but extremely unpleasant.
Michael_Elliott
Caged Heat (1974) ** 1/2 (out of 4)Maggie (Erica Gavin) gets thrown into prison for committing a crime with her boyfriend. It doesn't take long for her to realize she's in for a long ride as the prison is being ran by a sadistic warden (Barbara Steele) as well as a crazy doctor (Warren Miller) who is doing bizarre experiments on the women.CAGED HEAT was the first film from director Jonathan Demme. Yes, that Jonathan Demme who would win a Best Director Oscar seventeen-years after this film with THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. By the time CAGED HEAT was released the women-in-prison genre was several years strong and by this time producer Roger Corman already had a formula down that he wanted followed. Of course you had to have a short running time and in that short time you had to have plenty of violence, action and of course nudity.Demme manages to deliver a pretty fast film, although there's no question that there's really nothing new on display here. He at least managed to turn in a fun exploitation picture that has all the elements needed for a "Corman picture" so to speak. The film has an attractive cast with Gavin fitting the lead role just fine and we've also got cult favorites Roberta Collins and Juanita Brown. Miller is good in the role of the crazy doctor and it's certainly fun and strange seeing Steele here. I thought the cult favorite was decent in the part but I'm not sure she seems too thrilled being in it.The film has plenty of nudity with a lot of beautiful women and of course there's the required shower sequences. The action is pretty good and for the most part there's really nothing overly bad here. As I said, the prison genre was already going strong for a few years so there's nothing new here but CAGED HEAT is fun.
EVOL666
Jonathan (SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, PHILADELPHIA) Demme kicked off his directorial career under the tutelage of veteran schlock director, Roger Corman, with CAGED HEAT - a decent 70's WIP film that has a little more substance and a lot less sleaze and violence than some of the more notable WIP entries of the era.Jackie is busted during a drug deal gone sour, and is handed the pretty vague sentence of "no less than 10 and no more that 40" years in jail. Once inside, Jackie is exposed to gritty prison life and due to a few mishaps, gets on the wrong side of the cold-blooded female warden. Eventually, an opportunity for escape presents itself and Jackie and another prisoner fly the coop. But as anxious as they are to be on the outside again - the girls realize that they left many of their prison buddies in the hands of the ice-queen warden and her sleazy doctor crony. Soon a plan is hatched to go back and break their friends out...CAGED HEAT is entertaining for what it is - but lacks most of the "strong" content and sleaze that the WIP films are known for. If you're expecting strong violence, lesbo rape scenes, sadistic torture, and prolonged tits and bush shots...you'll want to look elsewhere. CAGED HEAT plays more as a watered-down parody of those types of films as opposed to being a sleazy smut film - and many viewers will appreciate it for that reason. Me...I'll take the sleazy smut. Worth checking out for 70's exploit fans - just don't expect anything very rough. 6.5/10
PWT20
First of all, I was expecting "Caged Heat" to be along the same lines as "Ilsa, The Wicked Warden". Boy, was I wrong! In no way is this film 70s exploitation, "chix in chains", or "women in prison". Sure, the plot consists of a bunch of women in prison, who wear street clothes btw (quite comical), but NOTHING happens.There aren't strong rivalries, no one tries to seduce the warden or doctor in order to try and escape, and no inmates make out. There are 2 shower scenes, that I suspect is just recycled footage, but no fights breaks out / no one is seduced here - or anywhere for that matter! Aside from the lack of plot, unconvincing, unsympathetic, and flat characters, a couple of inmates that do manage to escape actually return to the prison in order to "free" their fellow inmates??!!PUH-LEASE, the movie should have just ended off with the escapees riding off into the sunset...as opposed to letting this mess continue!I feel scammed.
AD
